The Quantum Wanderer

I wake up, I am laying in a really comfortable place. I am hugging this very comfortable pillow… Or leg? I look around me, I am sleeping between the legs of a naked woman. She has white long hair, big tits, and her head is tipped to the side.

As I move and stand up, she wakes up. She looks at me.

“Good afternoon, my lord.”

“Who are you?’

“I am Shandon, my lord. I am your mate. May I know my lord’s name?”

“Marcelo. What is going on?”

“We didn’t expect it, but you defeated Hoggar in a challenge. You get all he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“You get his body, to eat if you want to, his hunting grounds, his clan, his mate…”

And she looked down, holding her hands together.

“I prepared a meal for you, lord. Do you want me to heat it?”

I look back, and there is something that looks like a buffalo, dead on the ground. I am kind of out of it right now.

“Sure…”

She gets near, and spits fire on the carcass. It burns the leather through.

“Ok…”

I get my knife, cut a piece and taste the meat. It actually tastes good. The hunger kicks in.

“Is that to you taste, my lord?”

“Yes.”

I eat a lot. I pick parts that are medium, there are all kinds of parts to choose from, starting at charcoal all the way to rare.

I then put my finger in my mouth, and use water magic to drink some water.

I am still zoning in… Let’s look at the status, to see how I am.

The number are impressive right now. I am probably going to need some rest to refresh this mana.

“Excuse me, can you repeat who you again? My head is kind of fuzzy.”

“Sure, my lord. As many times as you desire. I am Shandon, your mate.”

“Oh… OH! HOLD ON!”

“Yes, my lord?”

“Can you get dressed?”

“We don’t wear clothing, my lord. I assumed this form because it would be one I though you would be able to use best. But we generally prefer our original forms, they are stronger and more functional than this fragile one.”

“Ok, you can return to your form for now.”

“As you wish, my lord.”

She started to extend herself, until she was this big and beautiful white dragon. She wasn’t as muscular as the the males, apparently. And she seemed a little less built for battle. She was completely white, except her snout, that was pink.

“You are beautiful.”

“It makes me happy that my lord appreciates me.”

“Now, lets go by parts. Where is the Hoggar’s body?”

“It is still down in the arena, my lord.”

I look down there. Hum… I always wanted to mount a dragon, and this one seems… obedient to me, at least right now.

“Do you mind if ride you down to the arena?”

“I have never heard of this, my lord, but if it is your desire…”

“Yes, I want to do that.”

She lowers her head, I mount on her back, ahead of the wings. Her scales are softer than what I expected. Softer than a males, apparently.

She takes off, and we glide softly to the arena.

There is Hoggar’s body, stretched. I take a look at his head, and, sure enough, there is some damage to the back of the head. But it is smaller than the one done to the Parent, and I used a lot less mana on the Parent.

I get close to Hoggar, and use my anti-gravity spell, to make it float above the ground. I open a gate to my safe, and push the corpse through it. I will check what to do later on. I then sterilize the cave, so that his meat doesn’t decay.

I gesture to Shandon, and mount her again. I see some heads peek out of the caves, but I don’t really care.

“Let’s go back to our cave.”

We fly towards our cave.

It’s late, I need some sleep. Shandon lays down, I find a comfortable place around her tail, and sleep again.

I wake up the following morning feeling refreshed. I see Shandon entering the cave with some other hunt in her mouth. She sees that I am awake, puts the carcass on the floor, and toasts it with her fire breath.

I take some pieces, like yesterday, and she eats the rest. All of it. After she finishes, I have to understand what the situation is.

“Shandon, let me try to understand your culture, your law a bit.”

“Of course, my lord. What do you want to know?”

“You said that I got everything that belonged to Hoggar, right?”

“Yes my lord. His children and I are waiting for the purge.”

“Purge? What purge?”

“It is normal that a dragon that takes over does not care for another’s hatchlings. Hence, purge for all non-adults.”

“What if I don’t plan on staying here?”

“You can give away whatever is, with exception of his mate. She can choose to be given or to die. Unless you decide to keep me, my lord.”

“Do you have someone you trust? Someone that would be good to the hatchlings?”

“My mother still lives, she would accept them. She would be challenged for the other possessions, though.”

“Do you have a brother, some male that you care about?”

“Care? My lord, strength is everything. And you are the strongest. Right now, I only care for you.”

“A brother then, that may be less aggressive towards you?”

“Yes, I have brothers.”

“Ok. Can you please call your mother here, please?”

“Of course, my lord.”

“I sit down on the ground, taking a look at the cave. Let’s see if I can solve this quickly, I really want to go back home. My social battery is getting exhausted.”

As I am relaxing, I hear some wings, and I see Shandon getting back, with a slightly larger white scaled dragon. This female looks like Shandon, but has this calm that comes from age. She is not as agile as Shandon, but it feels like she moves in more certain way.

“I present you my mother, my lord. This is Opal.”

“Hello, Opal.”

“Hello, my lord.”

“I have a problem here… I intend on leaving this land, and I already gained what I was seeking. I don’t want unnecessary deaths. I though that you might take care of the hatchlings? Are they your daughter’s hatchlings?”

“Some are, some not.”

“But would you mind raising them, so that I don’t have to kill them?”

“That wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Now, his other stuff, can I pass it all to you? Then you can find someone that can take care of his properties, perhaps a good mate for Shandon.”

“Do I disgust you my lord? What did I do wrong? Please, I beg you.”

I am not quite understanding what is going on, but this level of terror. I am thinking.

“Ok, then. Since you can get into an almost human form, you can come with me. Opal, can you take care of the rest?”

“Of course, my lord.”

“I will need to do some preparations, I will be gone in the afternoon. Thank you, Opal”.

“Absolutely, my lord.”

I wait for Opal to leave, and I turn to Shandon.

“Since you want to come with me, you will have to respect human laws and culture. Do you have any problems with it?”

“None at all, my lord.”

“Oh, I am already dating, err mating with a human. Any problem with that? Be sincere.”

“If my lord wants me to be sincere, I don’t think another human deserves my lord’s seed, but if my lord enjoys it, then I am happy.”

Not quite what expected, but this is all so weird that I am just going with it for now. I grab some of my clothes from the safe.

“Assume human form, and dress this.”

I get to see that absolutely perfect body and beauty again. I have to say that I like looking at that. But then there is Cecilia as well… This is going to be complicated.

I open a portal to the woods close to the Empire capital. I thought that this would be the easiest place to do this. We go through customs, and my steel tag allows both of us to enter.

We go to the shopping district, and find a women’s clothing shop. At the door, this older lady is looking the street.

“Oh my, good morning. How are you?”

“We came here to get her some clothes, can you help? I only want new ones.”

“Of course. Come with me, dear, we are going to get you something that is going to look fantastic, not those boy clothes. Do you have any particular requests? Is there a limit on the amount, or a preferred type of clothing?”

“We need practical, day to day clothing. Not much in terms of manual labor, but something she can move in normally. She has to be comfortable. And Shandon, I want you to pick things that you like, ok? You don’t have to worry about price.”

Then I turn to the store lady.

“But you, try to keep it reasonable.”

The lady brings Shandon inside the store, and they go about choosing clothing for her. I end up looking around, as I wait outside.

I am taking a look at a stall, when I hear.

“My lord? My Lord? MY LORD?”

I see that Shandon is a little agitated, but I get there and she relaxes. I go inside, and pay the shop lady. It is one gold and two silver, for four different garments and two pairs of shoes. My clothes, that Shandon was wearing, are also in the bag.

I grab Shandon by the hand, and we walk back to the woods.

Now here goes nothing. I open a portal, and we go back to the woods of Frolk.

As I am entering the village, the people around are staring at us. We go to the guild. This is during the day, the door is unlocked, and we just enter. Cecilia is reading a book behind the counter. I approach her, Shandon is behind me.

“Hi, Cecs, we… huh… have to talk.”

She looks at me, and then stretches herself to look at Shandon.

“What is going on?”

I turn to Shandon, I give her my room key.

“Here, go upstairs, and stay in this room for a while. I have to sort things out here.”

“Yes, my lord.”

She goes up the stairs, and Cecilia and I are just watching that. After Shandon is gone, Cecilia looks at me, and her eyes start watering.

“My lord? Are you a noble? Is this a game? Why? Who is she?”

I go behind the counter, and try to hug her, but she fights back. I hug her anyway, and she is crying on my shoulder, eventually hitting me. It hurts, but not physically. After some long time, she calms down enough that I can get her to sit on a table. I lock the door for the guild.

“Well, I think this is the best time.”

I throw all the other adventurer tags on the table. This should shock her enough that she would listen.

She slowly starts looking at the tags. Her eyes open wide. She picks each one up, and takes a look. She grabs them, and goes behind the counter, and puts them on the counter. She grabs a small piece of metal, with one gem on each side, and gets it near each tag. The gem that is farther away from the tag turns green each time.

The last tag, she keeps doing it, several times. At one point, she tires of that, and looks up at me, realizing.

“Is it YOU?!? REALLY? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?”

At this point, Muninn arrives, and lands on the counter, and caws. He came from the stairs. I see Shandon at the top of the stairs, she looks concerned. I gesture her to go back to the room, and she goes back there. He places his wings open, between Cecilia and I, and rips off a piece of the counter with his talons. Cecilia is scared.

I pet Muninn.

“Everything is ok, little fella.”

I tap another part of the counter, and he goes there with those little hops.

Cecilia finds a chair and sits down. She passes her hand through the hole in the counter, that I realize is made of some very solid wood.

Cecilia looks at Muninn with different eyes.

I then tell Cecilia the tale, omitting some parts. I omit who Andrew is, and telling everything is just going to take a long time.

Once I finish, Cecilia is in a state of shock. She goes in the kitchen, gets some liquor, and take a big gulp.

“That’s a lot to take in.”

“Yup, a lot happened.”

“What now?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to make of Shandon, really.”

“Oh shit, your ma… concubine… Let me go talk to her.”

“Let me introduce you two. It may be safer.”

“Sure.”

She goes up the stairs, moving her hips, side to side.

“You know, I never told you what I would do if you became enchanted adamantite…”

I laughed.

We get to the room, the door is open. I enter first, and close the door.

“Hi Shandon, sit here with me.”

She sits.

“I understand that you want to stay by my side, right?”

She gives me a pained face.

“Yes, my lord, please.”

“Ok. We can do that. But before meeting you, I met Cecilia, and I like her. That means that I will not tolerate her being harmed. Are we clear?”

“But my lord, she is so fragile. And so short lived. What if something happens to her?”

“If you are close to her, I expect you to help protect her, and I expect you to do your best.”

“Of course, my lord.”

“Ok, then. She wants to talk to you, sort out this situation. I want you to listen to her, and try to understand the situation we three are in.”

She nodded.

I leave the room, and go downstairs. I check to see if someone is looking, and I open a small portal to Leopold, to let him know. I check if no one is around, ask his permission, and open a portal to the guild.

“Hi”

“Heeelo? Did you power up, again? How? What level?”

“158”

“Should I just drop on my knees and start worshipping?”

“Somehow, I don’t imagine you would ever do that…”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t. But How? Better yet, why?”

“I feel safer this way. I know that I am able to protect myself and the people around me.”

“That’s the understatement of the year. Just, please please don’t sneeze.”

“Huh?”

“You know, sneezing, and leveling a city?”

“Oh.” I giggled.

“I have some news… I told Cecilia.”

“Ok. How did she take it?”

“That part, she took well. The part where I ended up with a female dragon entourage, not so much.”

“I think I don’t even care at this point. Is this a risk for human cities?”

“No, don’t worry, she is very calm. They don’t even like our taste, they say that the clothing and the stuff we carry get in the way of chewing.”

“You think you’re funny, you’re not.”

I laugh. This is actually funny. He sighs.

“Where are they now?”

“They are at Frolk’s guild, Cecilia was talking to her, so I decided to take the time and come here to tell you the stuff.”

“And you left them alone? Are you insane?”

“Like I told you, Shandon is there, she is very calm, actually.”

He holds the bridge of his nose.

“Anyway, I have some kind of bad news. First of all, I have to apologize. You were right, we should have removed the guild master from the capital.”

“What happened?”

“He got wind that you are, well, you, and is trying to blackmail the guild.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“The guild, as a whole, is playing fair with you. To us, ‘honest as a guild’ is a badge of honor. Even to upper echelon. We wanted to let you know, in case something happened. I mean, not much can hurt you, but you still have people around, right? Besides, if you don’t want to be known, you won’t.”

“Why not disappear with the guy?”

“He is the king’s nephew, you know. That would mean all out war.”

“Huh. What if I scare him?”

“That would work. We don’t have the means to do that effectively.”

“Ok. I will shake him up. How long do I have?”

“A couple of weeks.”

“Ok. How did he find out?”

“He actually hired the Shadows. The Shadows is almost the opposite of the guild. They are a bandit syndicate, that deals with the worse trash you can imagine. That, and his contacts as guild master actually did the trick. Stuff like using the Comm Gem to scry conversations. Not everyone is stupid.”

“Are you attached to them at all?”

“Not particularly. If you can find them, you can do whatever you want with them. Thank you for asking.”

“And if there is a noble involved?”

“Just please not the king and immediate family. If king and immediate family are involved, I would ask you to let us know, and we could coordinate something. That would be a shock too big to the kingdom. As for anyone else, go ahead. If you bring in the heads, we will even pay you. Though I don’t think it would make any difference to you right now.”

“Alright. Thanks for letting me know. I am going to take a look at this. Besides, obviously, the leader, do you think anyone else would about me?”

“We don’t know. I don’t expect anyone else to know, for that matter. The leader is very paranoid about sharing information. It comes with the job, I guess.”

“Ok. Can you send the information you have on these guys?”

“Sure, I will prepare it, it should be ready tomorrow.”

I go back to Frolks’s guild. Once I get there, I can hear them laughing. I shout to them that I am going to open the door, and I unlock it.

There is a group of people on the other side of the door. All men.

“Is the guild open? We are trying to get some ale…”

I let them in, they enter and sit on some of the tables. Cecilia comes down, followed by Shandon. It is dinner time, and apparently there are a lot of customers today.

“Cecs, do you need help?”

“No, I am good. This is my job, right? Just because I haven’t had to do much doesn’t mean I can slack.”

She goes behind the counter, and registers Shandon as an adventurer, and handles her the iron tag.

I go to a table, and Shandon sits with me. Muninn is at the top of the window, behind us. I can see that his presence make people a little nervous.

Cecilia is about to serve us some but I shake my head. She brightens up, understanding what I am planning.

Shandon tastes the ale, but makes a face of disappointment. I take her cup. She motions her body forward, but then sits back straight, puts her hands in her laps and look down.

I gesture Cecilia, and she comes over.

“Cecs, do you have something different to drink? Perhaps that fruity wine?”

“Sure, coming right up.”

I don’t know if it is fair or not, but apparently I am getting priority service here. I hope that is an indication that things are less gloomy. She brings up another cup, I point at Shandon with my head, she puts it front of her.

“Yeah, ale is not for everyone. Enjoy, and let me know!”

Shandon tastes the wine, and her face brightens up. I drink her cup of ale.

Shandon drinks one cup after the other. Her thirst is amazing. I am worried that she is going to get drunk or something, but nothing happens. I remember that I have no idea what her strength is like. I actually have no idea about her at all, actually. Well, if she gets drunk or something, she can just sleep it off. And she isn’t going to have any problems with alcohol intoxication with me around.

After several cups, I see that is a tad more relaxed. She looks at Cecilia’s head, at the hair pin.

“Pretty…”

“What, do you like the hair pin?”

“Yes, it is pretty…”

I reach under the table, open a small portal to my safe, and pick up the other one.

“Here.”

“Oh, no, I can’t accept it, my lord. That is too much to put on mere me.”

I get up, I get the hair pin and try to put it in her hair. Of course, I fail. I have no idea how to do it. Cecilia comes around, bumps me with her hips, and puts Shandon hair up, and places the pin. The guild is silent for a moment.

The sound restarts, but not the same amount of noise. People start getting their checks, paying and leaving, until there is only one guy, sitting alone. Someone enters back in the guild, and slaps him in the back of his head. He looks around, sees that the guild is basically empty, leaves some coins on the table and leaves.

Cecilia locks the door.

“What is it going to be today, my villain? Fenrir? Griffon?”

“Griffon.”

We go to the back, I gesture Shandon to follow us. I take out the stakes, and cut one big piece for me, a smaller piece for Cecilia.

“Shandon, how much do you want? You can have as much as you wish.”

“I am good with whatever you offer, my lord.”

I put my knife on a place that is about twice as big as mine.

“How about this piece?”

“Whatever you offer, my lord.”

I double the size.

“How about this?”

“Whatever you offer, my lord.”

“How about this whole piece?”

“Yes, that is good.”

I take a small piece, and give it to Muninn. He is in the group, after all.

Feeding her is going to be expensive. Although she is in a human body now, apparently her feeding and drinking needs were still of a dragon. Good thing that she was on the smaller side. Her mother was on that side, as well.

Me and Cecilia are preparing the food. We only have skillets enough to prepare ours.

Once we are done, I cut the rest of the griffon in slices, and those are huge slices, and place them on top of the oven.

“Shandon, do you want me to grill this, or do you want to grill it yourself? I don’t know your tastes.”

“I can do it, my lord.”

“Make sure not to melt the oven.”

“I will take care, my lord.”

She spews fire. The meat is kind of burned from my point of view, but to each his own. We put it plates. Shandon’s plate is ridiculous. Its several strips of steak, around two inches thick each, around three feet long, two feet large.

We sit on the table. Me and Cecilia grab a knife and start cutting and eating the steak. Shandon dives with her mouth on the steak.

“Wait.”

She stops.

I go into the kitchen, and grab a knife.

“Here, use this like you are doing, and you are not going to get a dirty on the face.”

“Won’t people think less of you, my lord?”

“What do you mean?”

“A female with a dirty face of food means that what you hunted was enough to satisfy you, and allow the scraps to be big enough for your mate to glutton on it.”

“No such things among humans. I think you look better with a clean face.”

She grabs the knife, and starts eating like us. Of course, the pieces she cuts are way bigger than ours.

We eat and drink our fill. Shandon burps, this huge one. I wonder where all that meat went. She probably ate her weight in meat right now.

“Shandon, is burping a thing among dragons as well?”

“Yes, my lord. It is how we demonstrate we gracious about the food we received.”

“Not so for humans.”

“Understood, my lord.”

“And you can drop the my lord thing. I am not a noble, nor do I intend to become one.”

“How should I address you, my… Great One?”

“Marcelo for now.”

“As you wish, my… Marcelo, why did we eat this instead of Hoggar? I assure you, it would be much tastier.”

“Wouldn’t you think it strange?”

“Why? Oh, that is our custom. We do eat dragon meat, specially the fruits of a challenge. I wouldn’t expect you to share it, though.”

“Noted, thank you. On another matter, I am going to have to do a quest next week.” Cecilia is bringing the plates to the kitchen, and shouts from there.

“How come?”

“Someone found out who I am, through some messed up way. He is trying to blackmail the guild. I am going to scare him into good behaviour.”

“How many people know about you identity?”

“Other than the idiot, apparently the leader in Shadow. But I am probably going to do a light spell.”

Cecilia is coming out of the kitchen.

“My lor… Marcelo, why bother? Why not just blow his cave? Why not just blow the whole cavern?”

“Well, I don’t want to create waves. You are going to see, humans can also be fun to interact with. We cannot sit in a café if the city has been turned to ashes.”

“What are cafés?”

“A place where we can get sweets. You are going to like them.”

This was a very long day. I get up, go to my room and go to bed.

Starting tomorrow, I am going to have to hunt some people down, this time to make sure that I will be able to keep my lifestyle. It is interesting how the whole thing about killing people from the Shadows doesn’t affect Cecilia. This world’s culture, I guess. And I guess that I have been here too long, it’s starting to not affect me too.